


Steven Falls, Dipper's Universe

by Lazuli3002



Category: Gravity Falls, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Corruption, F/M, My First Fanfic, Not a lot though, Post-Gravity Falls, Post-Steven Universe Future, Swearing, idk how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:34:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28194804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazuli3002/pseuds/Lazuli3002
Summary: Months after his corruption incident, Steven is traveling the States, doing well on his own despite the occasional vivid nightmare. But after avoiding opening up to anyone about his corruption, it seems to be coming back to haunt him.Dipper's 16 now, and has started documenting his own discoveries in a new journal of the supernatural, when a couple of odd teenagers come to Gravity Falls to visit the Mystery Shack. He learns even more about the universe outside of his weird little town than he ever could've imagined.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran/Steven Universe
Comments: 12
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fic, so I'm a little nervous but I'm really excited! I hope you like it! :)

Steven was lost. It was dark, and cold, wherever he was. He didn’t know. He couldn’t see anything. He could vaguely hear what sounded like a fight, a struggle of some kind, and then suddenly he felt like… someone had embraced him? It was faint, but definitely there. For some reason it made him… not quite sad, but by no means happy. It hurt, almost, and almost in a good way. More, tinier hugs- because that’s definitely what it was, now he thought about it- started making their presence known across his body(?). He heard… the gems? Dad? They sounded upset, and desperate. He wanted to comfort them, but he still didn’t know where he was or what was happening. Then- Connie? He could hear her, she was saying something about his healing powers..? 

Oh.

Steven woke up with tears on his face and sighed. He didn’t often dream about his… corruption, but whenever he did he always woke up crying. This dream wasn’t even that bad, compared to some of his previous ones. Steven looked to the side of his motel bed at the digital clock. 5:37. Might as well get up and hit the road. He was supposed to be meeting Connie in Gravity Falls in five hours to spend the day together for a date. Steven smiled softly at the thought and with that, he forced himself up and let out another sigh from the effort. 

He stretched, then hauled his legs out from under the blankets and got out of the bed. He made his way to the bathroom to shower. 

As he stood under the soothing warm spray of water, he thought back to his dream. It had probably been the most vivid one yet, most like the actual event it was emulating. He remembered the angry, cold darkness of being trapped in his own head while the others fought to bring him out of it. Ever since, he had been terrified of having another breakdown resulting in corrupting. 

He hadn’t told his therapist yet. 

It’s just, he was afraid that addressing the problem would make it happen again by bringing it to the forefront of his mind, and even though he knew it wasn’t okay to keep avoiding it he couldn’t help it. And he and Ms. Angel were still working on his obvious “need to put others first”. So, until she mentioned it, he wasn’t going to say anything. 

Steven turned off the water and stepped out of the connected bathtub, reaching for a towel. He wrapped it around his waist and approached the sink to brush his teeth. But when he brought his toothbrush to his mouth and looked into the mirror he froze. 

What the fuck.

He dropped his toothbrush into the sink and hastily leaned over the sink closer to his reflection. 

Steven’s pupils were diamonds. His irises were a soft, glowing pink. And the whites of his eyes weren’t white anymore- they were black. 

Steven couldn’t breathe. He rushed out of the bathroom and went to grab for his phone on the desk by the bed. With shaking hands he unlocked it and-

Who was he going to call? He didn’t wanna worry anyone, not the gems who he just video-chatted with last night, who were so proud of how he was doing and were super happy for him- not Connie, who was looking forward to a fun, happy, normal date- and not his dad, who was busy on a mini-tour with Sadie and Shep. 

He slowly put down his phone and concentrated on breathing. After a few minutes of deep, calming breaths, he felt better enough to check the mirror again. He cautiously approached the bathroom and peered into his reflection. 

Steven let out a relieved sigh. His eyes were back to normal. Huffing a small laugh to himself, he retrieved his toothbrush from the bottom of the sink and adjusted the toothpaste(which had gotten a little smear-y from the fall), then brushed his teeth, his heart continuing to slow down after his panic. 

After finishing preparing for the day, clean and dressed, ready to push his dream and any weirdness out of his mind, thank you very much- Steven left his room key at the front desk(no one was there, plus he wrote a little thank you note) and got in his car, ready to face the world.

\-----

Dipper was ready to die. He and Mabel had been in Gravity Falls for one week now, and Grunkle Stan and Ford had come back too, after Stan had gotten his arm broken in a bar fight in another dimension- he insisted he had won- and was using the injury as an excuse to spend time in Gravity Falls, even though everyone knew the senior twins were planning to come back for this summer anyway. 

Dipper was currently hiding in a bush from a Mantis-core he had been tracking for the past couple of days. It was like a manticore, but had the main body of a- you guessed it- mantis instead of a lion. It also, apparently, smelled like 3 week-old sweat-dirty shirts. So Dipper was desperately covering his nose and trying not to breath.

The Mantis-core chittered and stalked toward Dipper’s bush. He closed his eyes against the fumes coming off the creature and prayed it would just leave already. 

After another second or two, the Mantis-core slowly backed away from Dipper’s hiding place and turned around, finally leaving. Dipper waited an extra second before uncovering his nose and mouth and gasped in a huge lungful of air. He made a mental note to add the fact that the Mantis-core he had encountered had freaking stunk to the new supernatural journal he was working on himself. 

After walking back to the Mystery Shack, he watched as a tour bus pulled up. He sighed and unconsciously shook his head a little. These people had no idea what was actually out in the world, and beyond. Dipper watched on as people started piling out of the vehicle. A pregnant lady and what appeared to be her wife, a father and young son, a disgruntled-looking older couple, and finally a pair of teens. Small group, he thought to himself. He found himself looking at the teens again, probably because they looked around his age. One looked male, with light skin, dark curly hair and a pink jacket over a black shirt with a star on it, and the other looked female, with brown skin, medium-length dark hair, and a pale blue shirt. They were giggling about something. 

Dipper shook his head to snap himself out of trying to observe the tourists. They’re not monsters, he told himself sternly. Just regular teens here for a fun day looking at fake supernatural wonders. 

“Dipper! Grunkle Stan is gonna freaking murder you! He’s been yelling for you for the past thirty minutes! Were you seriously out looking for the manticore again?!” Oops. Mabel was shouting at him from the Shack. He burst into a jog towards her voice and yelled back.

“It’s a MANTIS-core!” The tourists all startled at his yelling, having not noticed Dipper lurking by the trees. After the others looked away, however, the two teens continued, looking vaguely interested. Weird. 

They averted their gazes when they noticed he was watching them, though. He wondered what that was about as he entered the Mystery Shack. Dipper was immediately assaulted by his twin, and let out an exaggerated oof when she lightly punched him in the stomach. 

“It was nice knowing ya!” Mabel said in a chipper voice. “Hey, after Grunkle Stan skins you alive and then slaughters you, can I have your music tapes?”

Dipper bristled. “Am I really in a lot of trouble?” he asked, his stomach sinking slightly.

“Nah,” his sister replied easily. “You might get yelled at a little but he’s not actually mad. I don’t think it was a big deal.” Dipper let out a relieved breath. 

“Alright. I’ll join you and Soos with the tourists in a minute, then.” he said, heading to the lived-in part of the Shack. He found Grunkle Stan in the T.V. room(unsurprisingly) and seeing his grunkle currently immersed in the T.V., decided to sneak up on him. A brilliant idea, really.

Dipper slowly, silently creeped towards Stan. Once he got close enough, he took a big inhale of air and… 

“SORRY I WASN’T HERE GRUNKLE STAN!” he shouted. Stan let out a short bellow of surprise and jumped so hard in his chair he spilled his soda all over himself. Dipper cackled as Stan cursed. His grunkle glared at him and Dipper went to the kitchen to grab a towel, still laughing.

“Damn kid,” Stan grumbled under his breath when Dipper came back. Dipper grinned. 

“I was just apologizing for being gone,” he said innocently. “I would’ve thought you would appreciate that.” Grunkle Stan snorted as he wiped up the soda spill from himself and his chair. 

“Oh please,” he shot back. “You know you’re a pain.” But Dipper could see amusement in his eyes past his grumpy expression. His smile grew. 

“Anyway, what did you need me for?” he asked. Grunkle Stan paused. “Oh, I just wanted you to grab the remote for me. It was across the room on top of the T.V. and I couldn’t move because of my injury.” he said the last word with exaggerated sorrow. “I managed in the end, though.” He said, puffing out his chest in mock pride. Dipper rolled his eyes.

“Alright, well don’t strain yourself too hard- you are really getting on in years, after all, who knows how dangerous that injury could really be for you,” he replied. “I’m gonna go help Mabel and Soos with the tourists who just pulled up a few minutes ago. Be careful with your injury!” Dipper teased. His grunkle huffed a fake-annoyed sigh. Dipper headed back to the shop section of the Mystery Shack with a smile on his face.

\-----

Steven was having fun. He and Connie had met up at a cute diner here in Gravity Falls and had had a delicious breakfast together before boarding a tour bus to see some of the sights the town offered. He was having such a good time that he almost forgot all about his dream and incident that morning. Almost. He had been torn about telling Connie about it even more when he saw her than when he was in the moment, but he wasn’t actually entirely sure if the whole eye-thing had actually happened. So he just ignored it.

They got off the bus at a place the driver called “the Mystery Shack” giggling to themselves- Connie had said something about the two of them probably being the weirdest things in this town that was known for its weirdness. 

“Dipper! Grunkle Stan is gonna freaking murder you! He’s been yelling for you for the past thirty minutes! Were you seriously out looking for the manticore again?!” yelled a young voice from the building. Steven and Connie looked up instinctively at the noise.

“It’s a MANTIS-core!” They both jumped at the sound of another voice coming from the trees. It was a kid, younger than them, with tan skin and dark brown curly hair covered by a cap with a blue tree on it. He looked around their age. 

Steven wondered what on Earth a Mantis-core was. He hoped it wasn’t a corrupted gem that would inevitably ruin his and Connie’s date. He flicked his gaze to her and could tell she was thinking the same thing. He looked back at the kid, who was- staring at them. Ah. Maybe they were acting a little rude. He looked away. 

He heard the door open and the kid and the first voice talked for a minute before a girl who looked similar to the other kid emerged from the Mystery Shack with a large, inviting smile. Steven couldn’t help smiling a little in return.

“Welcome all, welcome, to the Mystery Shack! I’m Mabel, and I’ll be your tour guide today! Pictures of the exhibits are allowed, and remember- we put the fun in no refunds!” she announced brightly. Her appearance added to the charming vibe she had going on, wearing a dark blue sweater with small white question marks dotting it all over and a nice pink skirt. She led the tourists inside the Mystery Shack with a flourish of her arm. 

“Mr. Mystery will be joining us in a minute, he is currently occupied with preparing a special exhibit for all of you!” Steven lifted his eyebrows in faint interest. A special exhibit, huh? Wonder what that’ll be. The guide- Mabel- started leading them through the Mystery Shack and showing off the many obviously fake taxidermied creatures, man-made fossilized footprints, and a glass ball with glittery slime in it that was supposedly a crystal ball for seeing the future. As they were walked further through the tourist-trap, the kid from earlier appeared and joined Mabel.

“Hello everyone, I’m Dipper, Mabel’s brother, and I’ll be here for the rest of the tour to help with any questions.” he said with a wide smile. They continued the tour for a few more minutes, Connie and Steven having fun trying to one-up each other with crazy theories on how each of the fake exhibits were made.

As Steven guessed the tour was coming to an end, a man who was standing in front of a glass tank was introduced by Mabel.

“And finally we meet Mr. Mystery, everyone! He’s going to talk to you about our newest exhibit, the special one I mentioned earlier!” she announced, grinning. Mr. Mystery wore a suit, a red fez, and had buck teeth and a blinding, winning smile. 

“Welcome dudes, to the end of the tour! Like Mabel here has said, we have a special surprise for you all!” he stepped out of the way of the tank and Steven, Connie, and the other tourists all leaned forward. “It’s the first live exhibit we’ve had since a few summers ago, when we had a little incident…” Mr. Mystery trailed off and glanced at Dipper, who flushed pink and pointedly avoided his gaze. Steven wondered what sort of incident Mr. Mystery was referencing. Mabel jumped in after Mr. Mystery.

“This live exhibit is a one-of-a-kind magical insect- we call it… The Crystalbug!” Steven heard Connie inhale sharply and felt her grab his jacket sleeve tightly. He looked at her questioningly, but her gaze was fixed on the creature in the tank. Steven followed her line of sight to- a gem? 

Sitting there in the tank was a red, orange and black beetle with an orange gemstone embedded in its back. Steven paled. It looked like another Heaven or Earth Beetle. He shot a panicked look to Connie, who was looking at him worriedly. 

“What should we do?” she whispered. Steven looked back at the gem in the tank.

“We have to heal her,” he whispered back. “She’s obviously still corrupted- she must be the Underworld Beetle Heaven and Earth have mentioned to Garnet before. She could never find her.” Connie nodded once, then raised her hand. The other tourists were oohing and aahing at the gem. Dipper was the one of the staff who saw Connie lift her hand.

“Yes?” he asked politely, ready to answer her question. Connie brought her hand down.

“Where did you find the Und- Crystalbug?” she asked with fake curiosity. Dipper gave a smile as he answered.

“I’m actually the one who found it,” he said proudly. “I was exploring in the woods when I came across a strange cave that for some reason felt supernaturally warm inside, and decided to see if I could find anything. And deep underground in that cave system, I found this little guy.” 

Steven blinked. That sounds much easier than what had happened when he and Opal retrieved the Heaven Beetle, or when garnet had to swim in lava to get to the Earth Beetle. Oh well. Connie nodded in response to Dipper’s answer.

“Do you go exploring in the woods often?” she asked, trying to get everyone’s attention on Dipper and simultaneously distract him as well. 

It worked. Dipper turned pink again and started excitedly telling the tourists- and Mabel and Mr. Mystery- some stories of strange and unusual THINGS he encountered in the forest. Meanwhile, Steven inched closer to the tank. Making sure everyone was focusing on Dipper, he slowly reached inside and scooped up the Underworld Beetle, carefully holding it in his jacket pocket. 

He raised his hand. Mabel was the one who answered this time.

“Yes?” she said, beaming from her brother’s contagious excitement.

“Where is the bathroom, Miss Mabel?” Steven asked her, putting his beetle-less hand down. She pointed back the way they came. 

“Up the stairs and to the left.” Steven nodded his thanks and tried not to look suspicious, making his way to the restroom. He felt like someone was watching him. 

When he got to the bathroom, Steven got out his phone and called Garnet. The phone rang a few times before she picked up.

“Hello, Steven,” she said with a smile in her voice. 

“I found the Underworld Beetle. Well, actually some kid here in Gravity Falls did, but I’ve got her now and am sending her there now,” he told her quickly. There was surprised silence on Garnet’s side, then:

“... Well done, Steven. Earth and Heaven will be glad to have her back.” Steven nodded, even though Garnet couldn’t see him, and pulled out the gem from his pocket, putting her in a bubble then tapping it and sending it to Beach City. He waited a minute before Garnet confirmed the beetle was received. They said goodbyes, then Steven exited the bathroom, feeling relieved that that was done without a hitch.

“Did you steal our exhibit?!” 

Or maybe not.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's Chapter 2 of Steven Falls, Dipper's Universe! I hope you enjoy it! :)

He was livid. Dipper had been so proud of the Crystalbug, and now, just like that, it was gone. After he had finished telling the tourists about one of his adventures in the forest(the story Mabel had dubbed “the Gossiping Gryphon”), One of the tourists- the pregnant lady- had looked back into the glass tank and exclaimed:

“Wow! The Crystalbug can turn invisible?!” Dipper’s smile had faded, while the tourists had all turned their attention back to the now-empty tank. Mabel and Soos had frozen, but Mabel snapped out of it first.

“Why, of course it can!” she had replied fake-cheerfully. “That’s part of why it’s so special!”

The guests all murmured in wonder. They continued to look inside the tank to see if the bug would reappear- except for one. The teenage girl who had asked about his explorations in the woods was looking towards the stairs worriedly. That’s when Dipper remembered the other teen had been excused to the bathroom.

They had to be behind this. 

So now Dipper was stomping angrily up the stairs while the tourists behind him all talked to a nervous-sounding Mabel. 

When he got to the bathroom, the door opened and the boy walked out looking relieved. 

“Did you steal our exhibit?!” And he no longer looked relieved. 

The teen paled and began to stutter.

“W-what? Your exhibit? N-no, I-” he stopped, then sighed. His expression went defeated. “Yes. I did.” Dipper felt anger boil in his stomach.

“WHAT is WRONG with you? No, nevermind, just give it back! That’s the ONE creature I’ve ever found that won’t hurt any of our tourists!” he shouted at the taller boy, who winced. 

“I can’t do that. She’s gone now.”

“What do you mean she’s GONE?” vaguely, Dipper filed away that the other teen had called the bug a ‘she’. 

“I MEAN I sent her home to get healed!” the boy shouted back. “I know you couldn’t have known, but she wasn’t supposed to be a BUG! She’s a person! So I acted to save her and send her back to where she could get taken care of! I’m sorry I ruined your exhibit, but she deserves more than a life in a tank to be gawked at by strangers!” he was huffing at his own outburst, and Dipper openly stared at him. 

“Wait wait wait, what? What on Earth are you talking about?!” the boy opened his mouth to say more, but the girl who was with him jumped towards him out from behind Dipper. 

“Steven! Don’t yell at the poor kid, it’s not his fault he didn’t know!” she pleaded gently. “Let’s just explain what you mean calmly, I’m sure he’ll understand,” she placed her hand on the boy’s- Steven’s- arm, and he visibly calmed down. He took a deep breath and gave an apologetic smile to Dipper.

“Okay, let’s start over. I’m Steven Universe, and this is my girlfriend Connie Maheswaran. We kind of… take care of any gems who need it, and one of the gems who raised me, Garnet, had been looking for the Underworld Beetle for a while now to heal her and reacquaint her with the healed Earth and Heaven Beetles.” Dipper was silent as he listened. He didn’t believe a word of what Steven was saying, but he might as well hear him out.

“So when Connie and I saw you had found her, we had to take her. So she distracted everyone and I went to the bathroom with the Underworld Beetle to send her to the other Crystal Gems- they’re Earth’s protectors- so they could heal her, since I can’t heal corruption- that’s what had turned her into a beetle- on my own.” he started to lift the bottom of his shirt. 

“I can tell you’re skeptical, so maybe this’ll prove I’m telling the truth.” Dipper looked down where Steven was holding his shirt up, and where there should’ve been a belly-button, was a large reddish-pink gem embedded in his stomach. Dipper’s jaw went slack.

Hesitance forgotten, he leaned down in excitement to get a closer look at the stone. 

“Is that a PART of you? That’s so weird, it really is just like the Crystalbug-” “Underworld Beetle,” said the girl- Connie. “And that’s because Steven is a gem, just like her.” At this Steven interjected,

“Well, I’m half-human, so not JUST like her,” he said awkwardly while Dipper poked at the gem in his stomach.

“So… all that stuff you were saying? Gems, corruption, healing-” Dipper paused, then stood up straight and looked Steven in the eye. “Did you say something about healing on your own?” Steven shuffled in place.

“Well, I have healing powers but they’re not strong enough on their own to heal a corrupted gem. But I heal just about anything else. I can’t really prove that unless you have something you need healed, though…” he trailed off. Dipper evaluated him for a moment before:

“Come with me,” he turned on his heel and began to head towards the house portion of the Shack. He heard Steven and Connie follow after a moment. 

He led the two to the T.V. room, where Grunkle Stan was still sitting in his chair. He glanced up for a second as the teens approached, then turned his gaze fully on Dipper.

“New friends, kid? I knew you weren’t a complete loser,” he teased. Dipper rolled his eyes.

“Grunkle Stan, meet Steven and Connie. Steven says he has healing powers, so he’s gonna prove it by healing your arm.” 

“Grunkle…?” Connie muttered.

“Uhh, I’d love to heal your arm, sir, but it’s kind of awkward.” Stan turned his eyes to Steven, who sounded very uncomfortable. Dipper’s grunkle looked at Steven with an unimpressed expression. 

“What’s the problem?” asked Dipper, a little mockingly. “You do actually have powers, right?” Steven’s gaze drifted to Connie, then he sighed. 

“Okay, my healing magic is… it’s…” Dipper nodded slowly, encouraging him to go on and admit he had been lying about everything.

“It’s in my spit.”

Silence. 

\-----

Well that’s just great. The old man and the other kid were staring at Steven like he was insane. 

Everything was quiet as the four all watched each other. Connie slipped her hand into his. 

“So… you actually do have healing powers?” asked Dipper, incredulously. “They’re just awkward?” Steven nodded tensely. 

“I had a bit of a doctor gig back home, and the ways I would… apply, I guess, was either directly from my mouth, or I would lick my hand- don’t worry, I wore gloves-” they didn’t look worried- “and then put my hand on the wound.” 

Silence again. 

Then the man, Grunkle Stan, Dipper had called him, stood up and took a step closer to Steven. He lifted his arm, which was in a cast. 

“This broken arm has been a real annoyance, kid. If you say you can heal it, feel free. But I want you to ‘apply’ your magic spit by hand, thanks.” Steven blinked, then nodded. He licked his pointer finger, then gently touched Stan’s exposed hand with it, knowing the healing would spread down his arm. 

A second later, Stan pulled out a knife- where was he keeping that??- and in one smooth motion, cut off his cast. Dipper made a noise of alarm, but Steven saw his eyes widen as his ‘grunkle’ waved his newly-fixed arm around. Stan grinned at Dipper. 

“Thanks, kid. Dipper, you’ve seen stranger things, calm down. Go get your sister and Soos, I wanna freak them out.” Dipper appeared to snap out of his shock, and rolled his eyes. Steven got the feeling he did that a lot. Dipper shot Steven a disbelieving, almost impressed look, then wordlessly left the room.

“Hey, kid,” Stan was addressing him now. “You do anything else?” He looked genuinely curious. Steven gave a small smile, then summoned his shield. The man’s brows lifted in surprise, and he huffed a laugh. 

“Well aren’t you something. My great-nephew was right to be intrigued by you, son,” Steven laughed humorlessly. 

“I would say suspicious, sir. Not quite ‘intrigued’.” Stan’s mouth quirked up. 

“He’s only that suspicious of things that intrigue him, kid. Dipper’s got a bit of an obsession with finding new, crazy, magical things, and you, kid? You seem like you fit the bill.” Steven disappeared his shield and lifted his hand to the back of his neck to rub there nervously. 

“I don’t mean to be blunt,” Stan continued, “but why don’t you and your friend Connie here stay in Gravity Falls for a while? Dipper and Mabel would love to spend time with more kids their age, especially magical ones like you. I could even give you summer jobs, if you happened to be looking. You both look like strong, reliable kids.” Steven and Connie exchanged a look.

“... I mean, I could use the extra cash,” remarked Steven. He’d been running a little low, and was getting tired of always asking his dad for money. He kind of wanted to make his own. Connie nodded. 

“I think it could be fun to stay here for a while, plus since this town is obviously a beacon for weirdness, there could be more corrupted gems in the woods.” 

“That’s definitely a possibility.” The two nodded to each other once, then turned to Stan, who was watching their interaction patiently.

“We’ll stay.” 

“Great!” exclaimed the older man. “We can sort out job details tomorrow, for now feel free to get acquainted with the Shack, since I guess this is where you’ll be staying?” 

Steven and Connie exchanged another look. They hadn’t thought about it, but if Stan had the space and was offering… 

“Yeah, we’ll stay here at the Shack, then.”

Just then, Dipper, Mabel, and Mr. Mystery- Steven supposed he was ‘Soos’- all entered the room. 

“Grunkle Stan!” screeched the girl. “Dipper said you went crazy and tore off your cast!” Stan didn’t waste any time before he started waving his previously-broken arm around and yelling like he had lost it. Steven and Connie jumped away from him. 

Mabel flew at her grunkle and tackled him to the ground. “Soos! Help me keep him down!” “Right!” “Dipper, why are you laughing?!” Dipper was, in fact, laughing at the display. Steven wondered if this kind of thing happened often. 

The pile on the floor continued to grapple with each other, before Stan’s screaming morphed into laughing along with Dipper and he went still under Mr. Mystery and his great-niece. She clambered off of him and glared, seething. 

“What is WRONG with you?! What am I missing?!” she demanded as Soos got off of Stan and helped him up to his feet. Stan wiped tears from his eyes and patted her shoulder with his healed hand. 

“Don’t worry kid, this teen here-” he jerked a thumb at Steven- “apparently has magic healing spit or whatever, and he fixed my arm up.” Mabel blinked and turned to look at Steven. Her eyes cleared in recognition. 

“You’re the tourist who stole Dipper’s Crystalbug! Wait, magic? Okay, seriously, WHAT happened?” she asked a little hysterically. Dipper, who had calmed down from cracking up at Stan and the others, moved to his sister and placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. 

“Okay, so Mabel,” he said between giggles. “This is Steven and Connie. Steven is a half-magical creature called a ‘gem’, and he stole the Crystalbug, which was actually apparently one of the gems, and somehow… I don’t know how actually, sent it to his home to be healed of ‘corruption’, which is why it looked like a beetle, and he does in fact have magic healing powers. He really did fix Grunkle Stan’s arm.”

Mabel blinked again, then shrieked.

“You have MAGIC?!” this time she looked at Steven with stars in her eyes and a wide grin. “That’s so cool! What’s a gem? Are you gonna stay for a while? Can you show me some magic, please?!” she fired off the questions in quick succession, not giving Steven the chance to answer any. Connie put up her hands to curb the flow of words, and it surprisingly worked. Mabel puffed out air as she tried to regain her breath.

Connie stepped slightly in front of Steven and he felt a wave of gratitude and affection for his girlfriend.

“Yes, he has magic, gems are a magical alien race, yes, we’re going to be staying with you guys here for some time, and if he wants to yes Steven can show you some magic,” she replied to all of Mabel’s questions calmly. 

Steven nodded to confirm what Connie had said. 

“Actually, I guess if you guys aren’t busy now we can go outside and I can show you some stuff now,” he said. Everyone flicked their gazes to him and he tried not to flush from embarrassment.

“YES,” Dipper said loudly. “Do you mind if I record you in my journal? I want to know everything!” he said excitedly. Steven smilied. Dipper’s delight was contagious.

“Sure,” he replied. “It could be cool having somewhere my powers and everything are documented.” Dipper beamed and pulled out his journal from his vest.

Then they headed outside.

\-----

Soos was talking to Grunkle Stan about how he had gotten the pregnant tourist from earlier to pay extra for her unborn baby, and Dipper snorted in amusement when Stan patted Soos’s shoulder and grinned in pride. Dipper and his family were sitting on the porch as Steven and Connie stood in the yard in front of them, talking. After a minute, they seemed to agree on something and Connie walked over to join Dipper and the others on the porch.

She sat down and Dipper opened his journal eagerly, watching Steven with barely contained excitement. He rarely ever got an opportunity like this- Great Uncle Ford only took him on the occasional adventure when he knew it wouldn’t be anything too insane, and he didn’t usually get to study anything they came across.

But here he was, at his own home(during the summer Gravity Falls was his home), and a magical stranger had showed up and was willingly showing them his abilities! He wouldn’t have believed it was happening if he wasn’t there.

Steven took a deep breath and faced them all.

“Okay, the first thing I’m going to show you all is my shield- Stan already saw it.” Dipper watched in amazement when Steven summoned a shield out of nowhere and showed it off. He started to show them what looked like fighting moves with his shield. Dipper raised his hand after his shield disappeared. The others were all whooping and cheering.

Steven turned to him. “Yes?”

“Where does your shield come from?” he asked curiously. He thought it might come from Steven’s gem but wanted confirmation before writing it in his book.

Steven lifted his shirt. “I manifest it from my gem. Most gems have some kind of weapon or accessory their gem… creates, I guess.” Dipper nodded and went to record that information in his journal.

“Alright, this next thing I’m going to show you is my bubble.” In a second, a giant, pink-translucent bubble grew around Steven. Everyone oohed and aahed. Steven raised his voice a little so they could hear him clearly through the bubble.

“This is unique to me- my gem is the Pink Diamond, the only one, so I have some especially different powers. This bubble is very, very durable. It takes a huge amount of power to break it unless I make it go away. I can also do this and things like it with my bubble.” Steven brought down his bubble and lifted his hands, balling them into fists. Smaller bubbles wrapped around them and he punched them together. They didn’t break. Dipper scribbled that quickly in his book as Steven popped the bubbles around his hands. 

“Gems can all make smaller bubbles for storing things, too, or like I did earlier with the Underworld Beetle, send them home.” he plucked a blade of grass from the ground and another pink bubble appeared around it, the grass floating inside. Dipper and the others gaped when Steven tapped the top and sent it up into- nothing. The bubble with the blade of grass disappeared. 

“I just sent it back to my home in Beach City,” Steven told them to clear up the confusion. “I also have super strength and speed. And this,” he jumped a few meters into the air and instead of coming back down, Steven floated there for a moment before softly coming down. 

“You can FLY?” Mabel asked enthusiastically. Dipper, Stan, and Soos were all staring at Steven with excited grins. Steven chuckled a little. 

“No, only float. Oh, also my healing powers,” he kneeled down to the ground and kissed his finger before touching it to the blade of grass he had torn. It grew back even better than before. “And there’s one last thing I can do,” he said nervously, standing up. 

Connie got up from beside Mabel. She smiled at Steven reassuringly and Dipper watched her walk towards him, confused. She approached Steven and they interlocked hands. Dipper watched in surprised awe as the two began glowing brightly. He squinted at the light, and when it faded was shocked to see not two people standing where Steven and Connie had been, but one. 

“Hey, everyone,” the tall person said a little awkwardly. 

“I’m Stevonnie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for reading my story! I'll try to have Chapter 3 up very soon. <3

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Steven Falls, Dipper's Universe! Any feedback it really appreciated. I'm not sure how to schedule new chapters or how long they'll be, but I'm excited to continue this!! Thanks for reading! <3


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